Arsenal vs Manchester City: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis, Premier League 2018/19

Arsenal Man City highlights
Unai Emery failed to beat Pep Guardiola yet again

The final Premier League encounter of the opening game week saw Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

Raheem Sterling opened the scoring for the defending champions early in the first half and that is how it stayed going into the break despite both sides creating a number of chances.

The second half saw improvement from arsenal before Bernardo Silva made it 2-0 to ensure Pep Guardiola's side came away with all three points to see him get the better of Emery yet again.

Here are the major talking points from the game.


#1 Arsenal's confident start undone by Man City's possession and early goal

Arsenal FC v Manchester City - Premier League
Raheem Sterling opened the scoring in the 14th minute

Arsenal started strong, what with it being their first home game. With vociferous support for every good move or pass, it was the Gunners who were on the front foot.

Emery's side pressed hard when City had the ball and won the ball back a few times in the opening minutes. When City tried to go wide, their full-backs were well contained as they had no room to cut the ball back in.

But once City started getting into their groove, they used their possession a lot better. They were able to create combinations in midfield and their forward line managed to give defenders the slip time and again.

And City pounced when a bout of nervousness took hold at the back for Arsenal. Raheem Sterling opened the scoring with such consummate ease that it seemed like the same, familiar failings were back to haunt Arsenal.

Receiving the ball out on the left of the box, Sterling dribbled parallel to the box and went past both Hector Bellerin and a poor challenge from Matteo Guendouzi before firing a shot that sneaked through the gap of defenders and beat Petr Cech.

On his part, Cech could have done better to attempt a save but seemed to be in two minds, eventually pulling out of the dive and watching the ball sail past him into the back of the net.

#2 Emery's setup restricts Arsenal in attack

Arsenal FC v Manchester City - Premier League
Mesut Ozil started on the right flank for Arsenal

Although Arsenal were set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was in his best position as a striker. The three midfielders behind him were shuffled around and it restricted the Gunners a bit when they looked to get forward.

The formation saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the left while Mesut Ozil was out on the right. When neither of them plays as a no.10, they are usually on the opposite flanks.

With Aaron Ramsey playing in the no.10 role, presumably because he was better at pressing the City midfield off the ball, it affected their rhythm and they only looked lethal on the counter-attack.

There were even times when Ramsey was the furthest player forward while Aubameyang hung back. Mkhitaryan had quite a disappointing game by his standards.

It was only after Ozil drifted in that he started to affect play and had some good touches to release his teammates and one particular pass almost set up Ramsey who found himself marginally offside.

They were unable to get the ball to Aubameyang quickly enough and even the long balls to the Gabon striker were too deep with Ederson cleaning up at the back. Aubameyang's first and only shot in the first half was a frustrated effort from range which was well off target.

The second half saw some improvement but this is a team in transition and the communication between teammates has still not been established. The Gunners were playing on different wavelengths.

The timing of their runs is what let them down the most in attack with the offside flag preventing Arsenal from bouncing back time and again - all thanks to City's high line.

#3 Man City do not allow Arsenal to play out from the back

Arsenal FC v Manchester City - Premier League
City's forward line pressed the centre-backs and goalkeeper to force errors

It seemed like Emery had instructed his players to play out from the back no matter what and that did not go according to plan.

As the two centre-backs stationed themselves on either side of the box when Petr Cech had the ball, City's wide forwards waited for them to receive the ball before pressing them into making mistakes.

Time and again the ball went back to Cech and Sergio Aguero seemed to relish challenging him to get rid of it quickly. At one point, Cech almost scored what would have been one of the most embarrassing own goals of all time when an attempted pass just went wide of his own goal for a corner.

Granit Xhaka, who dropped deep to receive the ball, did not fare too well either. He misplaced passes that put Arsenal at a disadvantage when City won the ball back high up the pitch.

#4 City regain momentum despite Lacazette's introduction

Arsenal FC v Manchester City - Premier League
Aaron Ramsey was substituted in the 54th minute

Minutes into the second half, Emery decided to take off Aaron Ramsey and bring on Alexandre Lacazette. The Welsh midfielder had been a doubt for the game and with the Gunners down 1-0, Emery decided to test the partnership of Lacazette and Aubameyang that had worked in many games last season.

The response was almost immediate. The French striker was seen harrying City's defenders and winning the ball back, he was quick to release Aubameyang, and he even managed to get a shot off on an Arsenal counter that drifted wide - all in the first couple of minutes of his introduction.

That was when Pep Guardiola decided to switch things up and introduced Kevin De Bruyne for Riyad Mahrez - just when the Algerian was about to take a corner. The time it took for his new record signing to come off and the Belgian to come on effectively ruined Arsenal's momentum.

Arsenal FC v Manchester City - Premier League
Bernardo Silva doubled City's lead in the second half

And, sure enough, City were back on the front foot. Aguero's effort when he was one-on-one with Cech was saved but not before Benjamin Mendy grabbed his second assist - a cut-back for Bernardo Silva to fire into the top corner. Unchallenged in the box.

With the wide forwards providing width, Sterling was able to allow Mendy to overlap and then cut back into the box. This was what did the Arsenal defence in as Silva crept into position to take advantage.

#5 A day of Premier League debuts at Arsenal

Arsenal FC v Manchester City - Premier League
Stephan Lichtsteiner had to come in and play as a left-back on his Arsenal debut

Emery was not the only person making his Arsenal bow. A first fixture against the defending champions that had broken records and won 100 points last season was always going to be tough on the new Spanish manager but it wasn't all bad news for his debutants.

Among the new signings who started were veteran centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos and young midfielder Matteo Geundouzi. While Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi will have a lot to discuss, Guendouzi gave a decent account of himself for a 19-year-old player who was playing in Ligue 2 just a few months ago.

The youngster always made himself available for a pass and looked to control the tempo of the game. There were a couple of nervous moments but he has time on his side and he even took the initiative to start a couple of attacks.

Right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner was forced to come on after Maitland-Niles injured himself in the first half and was asked to play in the unfamiliar role of left-back. The experienced Swiss defender was quite solid at the back and even looked to combine with Ozil on the left flank in attack while also bringing some steel to the defence in set pieces.

Lucas Torreira was given 20 minutes to announce himself to the Emirates crowd and he earned their appreciation by charging down 50-50 balls and almost getting an assist from very deep when he released Aubameyang who was eventually flagged offside.

All in all, the new players will take time to bed in and Arsenal will count themselves lucky not to have been mauled by a City team that is also only just warming up in their title defence.

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